WonderCon 2013: Top TV Showrunners

What better way to get inside the minds of the people who run some of the most popular shows on television right now than talking to them yourself. That was the thought process behind the WonderCon 2013 panel held on Saturday afternoon by TV Guide Magazine. The well-known magazine, that is celebrating its 60th anniversary, brought together some of the top creative minds in the industry today, including the following:

Julie Plec, The Vampire Diaries
Steven Molaro, The Big Bang Theory
Glen Mazarra, The Walking Dead
Remi Aubuchon, Falling Skies
Jeff Davis, Teen Wolf
Greg Plageman, Person of Interest

As the panel got started, TV Guide writer and panel moderator Michael Schneider asked each of the panelists if they could mention which TV shows were early influences for their current roles as showrunners of the above series. As you can imagine, their answers were as varied as each of their shows. Glen spoke up first stating that he loved The Twilight Zone growing up and that Rod Serling was a big influence. He also mentioned that he is a “TV geek” who also loved Hill Street Blues and the series finale to M*A*S*H had a big impact on him.

Julie then mentioned that she watched a lot of soap operas, probably at much too young of an age, being 6 or 7 when she watched General Hospital. Later on in her life L.A. Law was a favorite show. Steven said that Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley were big shows for him in his youth. In fact, he joked that when he was in 4th grade, a presidential State of the Union address interrupted one of these shows, much to his dismay, and a family member suggested he write a letter to the President of the United States, showing how disappointed he was by the pre-emption. Remarkably, Steven said he got a response back from a White House staff member that explained that the President did not have any control over when each local affiliate aired his address messages, but that he was sorry it had interrupted his favorite show. That, obviously, left quite an impression on young Steven.

Next up was Remi, who said that he watched a great deal of TV from the BBC, but in terms of American television, he listed Star Trek, The Twilight Zone and Laverne & Shirley as early influences, joking that he, too, is a huge TV watcher. Then Jeff joined in the conversation stating that The X-Files was a big influence for him as well as Alias and 24 (among others). He also shared that he considers himself a “failed feature writer”, who found the medium of TV much more inviting. Lastly, Greg mentioned that Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice were big shows for him at the time and that, when he was younger, wanted to change his name to David because of “the Davids” who were tops in the industry at the time: that being David Milch, David E. Kelley and David Chase.

Some of the other discussions the panelists had were how much involvement the respective networks for which their shows air have in the development of the story lines; in other words the dreaded network notes that come down to the showrunners about what the networks will and won’t allow them to include in the shows. Julie joked that they can show hearts being ripped out of chests and vampires’ heads being chopped off, but they are repeatedly told that they have to have ‘less thrusting’ in any sex scene that is filmed. On the opposite side of that, Remi shared that the president of TNT is a very big fan of the show Falling Skies and is very invested in the characters on the show.

They also talked about how important the relationships of the key characters in each of their shows play an important; and in Remi’s case he joked that the actors will regularly approach him, asking if “they’re gonna die in the next episode or not”. And, they also talked about the pressure to accomplish so many story archs in the 22 to 24 episodes set for network TV compared to the shorter season for the cable series with the showrunners for the network shows joking they are jealous of the showrunners for the cable shows because they have it easier in terms of less episodes to film. Jeff then explained that a lot of what they do on Teen Wolf is done on a bare-bones budget in comparison to the money that is available to Greg and Steven for their CBS-backed shows.

The final discussion, before the panel turned over to audience questions was one tidbit from each of the showrunners about what fans can expect from each of the shows in the days to come. The following is what each of them COULD share:

Greg (Person of Interest): Viewers will learn how the machine is evolving, how Ingram died and how Finch got his limp.

Jeff (Teen Wolf): There will be a big focus on alpha wolves and why wolves have different eye colors.

Remi (Falling Skies): Season 3 picks up seven months after the events in the season finale, will meet the new alien and see how Tom protects his family, including the new baby he and Ann are having.

Glen (The Walking Dead): The finale was to air the following day (Sunday, March 31) and all he would share is ‘there will be blood’. [If you have seen the finale, I’m sure you can vouch if that statement was accurate, but given the show’s theme, that is almost a given, right?]

Steven (The Big Bang Theory): The table read for the finale is set for a week and a half from Saturday and the script is not written so they have quite a task ahead of them.

Julie (The Vampire Diaries): Viewers will see the real face of Silas, the real cure will be ingested, it will be revealed if Elena’s love for Damon is real or not and we will learn if Matt Donovan really graduates from high school.

Needless to say, it was quite a panel digging into the minds of the showrunners for all of those shows; and it will be great fun to see this tidbits come true. Make sure you don’t miss any of these shows!